Good Willsmith: The Honeymoon Workbook (Umor Rex Records)

A marching drum for androids of the recession, alternatively a Casio keyboard having a mental breakdown

At its finest Good Willsmith’s The Honeymoon Workbook is a marching drum for Generation Y’s unemployed and employed in dead end jobs to rise up to. But when not so good it is a Casio keyboard having a mental breakdown and vomming out its circuit board.

The Honeymoon Workbook’s hammering, industrially-charged grindings channel sounds of heavy machinery and most of the time feel one step away from a harrowing encore command of ‘Once more…with screaming’, if you can imagine such a thing. The intentionally clear sample of, “you’ll always be unemployed” and android-like wailing which ring through on ‘& my body to breath’ pushes a vibe which continues on the remainder of the album.
Every sound and word is an industrial drone, effects are screwed in and there are great track names. For example, ‘If anything happens to me my password is Lady Lass’, marvellous.

On that particular track, howling sounds sear through industrial grindings and sonic samples. It’s a rushing on the ears as if rising from a pit of heavy manufacturing. Eventually, a sampled preacher’s voice arrives to deliver up and lead the hollering. Future concepts and stories are constantly hammered around.
This seven song album is full to bursting with ideas and an ambition to tell a story across its 41 or so minutes. However, some ideas aren’t delivered as well as they could be, or tracks are excessively overloaded with sounds and ideas. That’s when the image of the Casio keyboard having mental breakdown kicks in. It ends up being industrial, but losing direction. And when that happens the album stumbles into largely forgettable territory.

The Honeymoon Workbook reads like a piece of conceptual art or an angry dystopian political novel. It needs time and dedication to digest – which fans of digital and ambient music expect, as it does have some very clever moments if you’re willing to wait.